“That’s a challenge I would like to do. I’ve never asked to fight anybody, but I would like to test my martial arts skills against Conor McGregor,” Silva said, as translated by Bloody Elbow’s Lucas Rezende. “I would like that and a rematch with Nick Diaz and Michael Bisping. I think McGregor is a great striker, but he didn’t do very well in his last fight because he played into Nate Diaz’s game and that’s really hard. The Diaz brothers have a lot of gas.

“You have to respect him, the loss to Diaz doesn’t diminish his career at all. These are the fighters I would like to fight. McGregor, Diaz, and Bisping because that fight did not end nicely.”

The fight would be a hard one to make considering Silva fights at middleweight which 40 pounds above of McGregor’s weight class of 145 pounds but the former champion thinks both fighters would compromise to make the fight happen.

“We could do a catchweight,” said Silva. “He said we would fight anybody, anywhere. I think a catchweight would be interesting for the sport, for me, and for him.”